Time to return to common sense gun control

On April 10, 2013, Bluffton Today published my editorial titled, “Guns kill people, Mr. LaPierre.” On Oct. 30, it published my editorial, “Look at the big picture with gun control.” In both pieces, I recommend a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines and federal background checks on all guns purchased at gun shows.

About 40 percent of guns purchased do not go through background checks.

Wouldn’t everyone interested in Americans’ safety welcome the opportunity to keep criminals and mentally ill people from purchasing guns? As pointed out in the Huffington Post: “The United States has become the violence capital of the world and our kids are collateral damage.”

Based on the content of my two editorials, Paul Russo, president of Sun City Democrats, invited me to speak to the organization. I accepted the invitation Nov. 10 and on Feb. 18, 100 days later, I spoke to the group. I provided the following statistics: On average 300 people are shot each day, 12 shot each hour, and someone is shot every five minutes. Over 90 people are killed with firearms every day.

So over a 100-day period 30,000 were shot and about 9,000 were killed. Of these, 3,300 were murdered, 5,400 committed suicide and 300 were killed accidentally.

Before looking at the current concealed carry law in South Carolina, let’s look at a brief history of gun control.

Adam Winkler, author of “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” asserted that the Wild West had more gun control than we do today, and the first laws that were posted were gun control laws.

In the gun-roaring 1920s, several editorials advanced the need for gun control. An editorial published in 1923 asserted: “The sale of weapons should be carefully regulated. The problem is how to keep them out of the hands of man killers.”

The FBI determined that of the 10,000 murders committed annually, 90 percent were committed with handguns.

In the 1930s, Attorney General Homer Cummings reported 75 percent of murders were committed with concealed weapons. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson paraphrased each provision of bill S.1592. He said, “Ban the interstate sale of concealable weapons.”

Despite these past attempts to pass gun legislation, over the past 100 years, 1.2 million people have been killed with handguns/concealable weapons. In addition, since 1976 all 50 states have passed concealed carry laws.

The primary focus of the meeting Feb. 18 was the new concealed carry law allowing permit holders to bring weapons into bars and restaurants as long as they did not drink alcohol. One might think S.C. does not have a gun problem, but let’s look at the Center for American Progress Fact Sheet: South Carolina Gun Violence:

• S.C. is the seventh-deadliest state for gun homicides.

• S.C. has the second-worst rate in the country of aggravated assaults with a firearm.

• From 2001 to 2010, about 6,000 people were killed with guns in S.C.

• S.C. ranked fourth-worst in the nation on the rate of women murdered by guns.

Beaufort County Sheriff P. J. Tanner, however, disagrees with the law. He indicates, “You just don’t want to mix alcohol and firearms.”

The State Law Enforcement Division chief and Law Enforcement Officers Association say this is a reckless law that will put customers, servers and others in danger.

Concerned residents should ask themselves the following questions:

What percent of patrons who carry a concealed weapons into bars and restaurants have permits?

What percent of owners of bars and restaurants ask patrons if they are carrying a loaded concealed weapon?

What percent of patrons who carry concealed weapon into a bar or restaurant drink alcohol?

Finally, Josh Sugarmann in his book, “Every Handgun Is Aimed at You,” concludes:

“The handgun population explosion of the past thirty years has injected lethality via concealability into every corner of society from our homes to our schools, highways, places of worship, and shopping centers.” And now we can add bars and restaurants.

It is time to return to common sense gun control laws, ban concealable carry weapons at bars and restaurants in S.C.

Earl McDowell is a Sun City resident, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota and author of “America’s Great Gun Game: Gun Ownership vs. Americans’ Safety.”